News

FAMILY SETTLES PRISON
SUICIDE CASE AGAINST
STATE OF MICHIGAN
AND ITS EMPLOYEESFOR $737,500.00

The State of Michigan has agreed to pay an
out-of-court settlement in the amount of $737,500.00 to the family
of Eugene Lewis, who died on October 8, 1993, while in the custody
of the Michigan Department of Corrections and supposedly under the
care of the Michigan Department of Mental Health -- just 3 months
short of his scheduled parole date. He left behind a wife, 4
children, both parents and 5 siblings. A default judgment had
already been entered against the State by Judge Michael Harrison of
the Michigan Court of Claims, because of its refusal to comply with
a court order requiring persons with authority to appear at a
pre-scheduled Settlement Conference.

Mr. Lewis, a 1st time offender serving time
for the non-violent crime of breaking and entering, became seriously
mentally ill and suicidal in 1989, several months after beginning
his prison sentence. Over the next 4 ½ years, he was on an
ever-faster downward spiral of psychiatric deterioration, and he
attempted suicide (or engaged in other self-injurious behavior) at
least 20 documented times before October 8, 1993. Each time he
injured or tried to kill himself, in a desperate cry for help for
his underlying mental illness, rather then receive the treatment he
needed, Mr. Lewis was punished. Almost exactly one year before his
death, a low-level psychologist within the Department of Corrections
wrote a detailed report to the Parole Board, urging that Mr. Lewis
be released into a community mental health treatment program, that
he was not a threat to anyone but himself, that he had the potential
to once again become a productive member of society if he could
receive the treatment that he desperately needed, that he was a
serious suicide risk and, prophetically, that if he did not receive
parole or the treatment he needed, he would be dead within a
year.

Thirteen months later, on October 8, 1993,
Eugene Lewis diedafter being placed in a punitive
segregation cell, equipped with a sheet, a grate and a shelf to
stand on. On that date, Mr. Lewis suffered a serious psychotic
breakdown, begged a corrections officer for help (while sobbing),
was sent to a psychiatrist who saw him for 10 minutes and documented
the seriousness of his condition, then was promptly returned into
the hands of the corrections personnel with the statement from the
psychiatrist that this was "a custody and security matter," not a
psychiatric one. Within hours after being placed in the segregation
cell, after telling one of the guards about his suicidal history and
that if he was placed into segregation he would "do something,"
Eugene Lewis hung himself to death by tying his bed sheet to the
metal grate and jumping off the shelf.

Although the State had written policies to
protect prisoners like Mr. Lewis, they were routinely ignored and,
as a result, such prisoners were not even minimally protected. The
attitude toward mentally ill prisoners within the Department of
Corrections, even among mental health professionals, was that they
were "seen as a bug and the attitude was one of laughing at them and
putting them down," according to a retired Ph.D. psychologist who
had worked within the Department of Corrections for 17 years.

Suit was filed by attorneys for the Estate,
Steven T. Budaj, P.C. and Julie H. Hurwitz, P.C., against the State
in the Court of Claims and against the individuals in the United
States Federal District Court. After the default judgment was
entered against the State, a damages only trial was heard by Court
of Claims Judge Harrison. After that trial, and immediately before
the Federal trial against the individuals was scheduled to begin,
the parties reached a settlement agreement in the amount of
$737,500.00.

Attorney Budaj said, "This case has been
pending for nearly 3 years. The family has suffered long enough and
has already sat through one trial, having to re-live the horror of
their son's/husband's/brother's/father's horrible ordeal and
ultimate death. They would have had to go through it all over again
in the Federal court trial. This settlement, which was a compromise
for all the parties, finally puts an end to this family's nightmare
and, hopefully, sends a message to the State that prisoners,
especially those who are mentally ill, are human beings and are
entitled to be treated as such."